"Patricia A. McKillip - The House on Parchment Street" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)

"I just wanted to think, and I thought it might be easier to do it out loud."
She nodded. "I've been trying to think, too, only it isn't doing much good."
"What we've got is two ghosts left over from the Civil War period walking through a wall. It doesn't
make any sense. The man must be a Puritan. And the girl doesn't look like she isтАФshe's too pretty."
"Some Puritans probably were pretty. They couldn't help it."
"You know what I meanтАФher hair is in curls, and her dress is the same color as her eyes are, and her
shoes have fake roses in them."
Carol's head turned slowly. "Her dress is the same color her eyes are?"
"Cobalt blue. Didn't you notice? We could have a worse-looking ghost to worry aboutтАФshe doesn't have
fangs or a wart on her nose, and if she appeared by your bed at night you'd only have a mild attack.
Anyway, she probably isn't a Puritan. So why are they in the same cellar?"
"They're both waiting for Edward."
"Who is Edward? And where is he? If we can see them, why can't we see Edward?"
"Why should we see either one of them? They've been dead for centuries. What good does it do for
ghosts to hang around after they're dead?"
"Maybe they got stuck in time, doing one thing over and over again, like a broken record playing the
same thing over and over."
"Well, why can't Father Malory and Uncle Harold see them, if they're stuck? Why does it have to be us?"
"I don't know."
They were silent. Below them, the fishpond was a grey still shadow in the gathering dusk.
Bruce said, "She doesn't say much. I wonder if she knows we're there. There are times when it seems
she's looking straight at you, until you remember she's a ghost, and she can't see you тАж or can she?" He
shook his head. "We'll never figure anything out until we can find out why they go through that wall. I'm
tempted to tear it down, except I'd never be able to
explain to Dad if there's nothing behind it. And I don't see what could possibly be there."
"Edward is a Royalist leader. The man with the sword is a Puritan leader. He wants to capture Edward.
The girl is trying to help Edward hide."
"Behind a brick wall? And where is Edward? When she says 'Edward. Come,' why doesn't he come?"
"She's talking to us, then. We're supposed to come."
"How?"
Carol puffed her cheeks and sighed. "Maybe Edward was a pirate, and there's a buried treasure behind
the wall, and he and the man with the sword fought over it and the girlтАж ."
"YesтАФwhat about the girl?"
"I'll think of something. Anyway the man killed Edward, stole the gold, and locked Edward's bones in
the treasure-chest, and that's why we never see him."
"Ghosts don't need bones. If they can get out of coffins, they can get out of treasure-chests. And why
would a pirate bury a treasure so far inland?"
"I don't know."
"There must have been something behind that wall. But what?"
"Another room?"
"There's no trace of another room. And if there was one, why would they have sealed it off? People don't
usually build cellars that extend farther than the house."

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"What about a hiding place for Royalist leaders?" He smiled. "We're going round and round, like
squirrels in one of those moving tracks they put in cages. It seems logical that Edward was a Royalist
leader, and she might be trying to hide him. But I don't know how she did it without knocking the wall
down, and there's not much sense in that; you can hide a man more easily than you can hide the evidence